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07.10.2000

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overheard ...

"College kids toss everything that won't fit into the Honda for the drive back to mom and dad's house."
-- geekprincess, "getting EVERYTHING for nothing" 

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other recent LOUNGE articles:
o the Incredibly True Confessions of a First-time Homeowner
o crafty crafty: Make a Throw Pillow Cover

o On Weeding: School Stuff

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10 tips for Furniture Foraging  
a secondhand-shop-a-holic spills her secrets
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continued from page 3

8 Suggested furniture-thrifting toolkit: plenty of strong rope, bungy cords, a thick blanket or two, screwdriver/swiss army knife, a strong friend.
If you’re looking for furniture, you’ll want to make sure you can actually cart your sofa (table, entertainment unit, whatever) away once you find it. One of the downsides of buying large items secondhand is that delivery is just not an option. If you’ve got a truck, you’re set. For those of us who aren’t blessed with gas-guzzling behemoths for vehicles, however, you’ll need the ropes and bungy cords for securing your purchases to the roof, or keeping your back trunk – which inevitably will be just an inch too short or deep to fully accommodate your acquisition – from popping open when you drive. Blankets make fine furniture pads; use them to prevent both your furniture and your car from getting all scratched up.

9 Go with your gut instincts.
If you’re a hem-mer and haw-er who vacillates for 3 hours over the dilemma of whether to buy or to keep looking, then second-hand shopping is probably not for you. By the time you’ve weighed all the pros and cons, some more-decisive shopper is almost certain to have scampered off with your find. If you love it, and it’s at all within your price-range, be bold: fork over the dough and don’t think twice about it.

10 Get rid of the old old to make room for the new old.
Because once you start doing the secondhand thing you’ll find it almost impossible to stop – it’s just so exciting when you find something terrific for next-to-nothing – you’ll soon find yourself buying things even when you don’t really need them. The only way to prevent your house from becoming a teeming mass of junk is to conquer those pack-rat tendencies and learn to weed. Donate the ugly, the broken, the useless to Goodwill. Or perpetuate the secondhand cycle by having a garage sale of your own.

o

check out these related articles: 
the furniture facelift fiasco 
on weeding: school stuff 
minor makeover miracles
 
 

 

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